CHICAGO – Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to congratulate its client, Roosevelt University, on its selection as one of three finalists for the Council of Development Finance Agencies’ “Best 2009 Bond Deal.” Roosevelt, a private university in the Chicago Loop, executed a $183.6 million bond financing in December 2009 to finance construction of a 32-story “vertical campus” on Wabash Avenue to continue its transition to a traditional, four-year urban campus.

Katten acted as bond counsel to Roosevelt on the transaction, which was particularly challenging given that the financing was designed and implemented in the midst of the global credit crisis and was executed in spite of the university doubling its outstanding debt. Construction is underway on the project, which, when completed and opened to students in 2012, will become a new landmark in the Chicago skyline. The new campus will provide student housing, student services, state-of-the-art academic and laboratory space, and office space in a glass-and-steel building that will transform the face of the university. The development will meet a need for increased space at Roosevelt’s Chicago Campus for academics, student life and student housing now and for future growth.

“We are proud to have assisted Roosevelt in making this critical project a reality,” said Janet Goelz Hoffman, a partner in Katten’s Public Finance Practice who acted, with Maribel Mata Benedict and Milt Wakschlag, as bond counsel to Roosevelt and its Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration, Miroslava Mejia Krug, in the transaction. “Katten has long enjoyed a strong partnership with Roosevelt University and using our expertise to help shape the university’s future is very rewarding.”

Katten maintains one of the preeminent public finance practices in the nation. Our experienced public finance attorneys have served as bond counsel or underwriter's counsel with respect to several thousand bond issues throughout the United States.